


Obstruction

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety, Arguments, Awkward Conversations, Brother Feels, Brotherly Affection, Cave-In, Confessions, Exploration, Guilt, Major Character Injury, Making Up, Male Friendship, Mid-Canon, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Promises, Rescue Missions, Sad with a Happy Ending, Search and Rescue, Separations, Serious, Spark Bond, Trapped, Twins, Visiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 17:25:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4313859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "You go in there, I'm not coming in after you..."</p><p>Just as one set of twins finally starts coming together, the other set begins drifting apart. What happens when, through one stupid mistake, both sets are split down the middle?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Obstruction

“Blue! Sunny! Come check out this cave I found!”

Bluestreak started to get up immediately at Sideswipe’s call, hesitating only when he saw Prowl’s raised eyebrow. “Can I, Prowl, please?” Bluestreak pleaded. “I promise not to talk so much that bats attack and I promise not to think any shadows are Decepticons—or to think that any Cons are shadows—and I’ll even bring some energon along so I don’t get dehydrated or whatnot. I promise to drink it and I promise to make sure Sunny and Sides will too, okay? I promise—”

“Bluestreak, you’ve made five promises so far—none of them the one I want to hear.” Prowl’s voice was soft but commanding, just as always. Bluestreak paused, considering, and then brightened with an appreciating smile.

“I promise to be careful.”

Prowl nodded approvingly. “Thank you. You can go, but call if you need help and I’ll be there for you.”

Bluestreak’s smile grew even wider, his sigil giving off a faint glow as he no doubt sent reassuring warmth through their bond. Then he leapt to his feet, racing off in the direction of Sideswipe’s voice. Sunstreaker made no move to follow and Prowl glanced at him questioningly.

“I’m not going,” Sunstreaker answered the look with an offhand shrug. “It sounds boring.”

“I have a feeling you’ll change your mind, Sunstreaker,” Prowl said lightly. Even as Sunstreaker laughed disbelievingly, Prowl added, “Do you really want to trust your twin to mine?”

Though still looking reluctant, Sunstreaker did get to his feet and trudge off for that idea. Prowl chuckled quietly and set about for his data pad, now able to read in peace.

—

“What took you so long?” Sideswipe demanded, tapping his foot impatiently as Bluestreak and Sunstreaker finally appeared over the crest of the hill. “Never mind, I’m sure it was your brother, Bluestreak. Let’s go inside!”

Bluestreak frowned momentarily. “Actually it was—”

“I am _not_ going in there,” Sunstreaker cut in, eyeing the cave before them with distaste. “It’s sure to be smelly and dusty and you _know_ that I just got a new chroming job, Sides.”

“So? You can always get another one,” Sideswipe pleaded. “C’mon, Sunny.”

Sunstreaker shook his helm, crossing his arms and looking more petulant than firm. “Nope. Nothing you say is gonna—” He stiffened suddenly and Bluestreak looked away out of respect as the other set of twins argued through their bond.

It was some minutes before Sunstreaker spoke verbally again, and it seemed as though their bond conversation had been just as fruitless. “You go in there, I’m not coming in after you.”

“Fine!” Sideswipe snapped, whirling around and stomping into the cave, narrowly avoiding a collision of his chamfron with the cave roof. Bluestreak winced, glancing between Sunstreaker’s scowl and Sideswipe’s back before following the latter into the depths.

“Um, hey, I’m sure Sunny’ll lighten up and join us eventually,” he ventured nervously, continuing when Sideswipe didn’t reply, “I mean, he enjoys all the pranks you play on my brother, right? Those can get messy, but Sunny does ’em anyway with you; doesn’t really matter about his paintjob then, right? I remember the one time you rigged a bucket of curdled energon over his office door. Prowl ranted about it for joors—”

“Shut up, Bluestreak!” Sideswipe barked, startling the sniper so his step faltered. The red Lambo seemed to regret it only a few kliks later, sighing an apology. Bluestreak mutely nodded his thanks and after another awkward silence, Sideswipe remarked, “Prowl actually didn’t say anything when that energon spilled all over him. We monitored him the entire rest of the orn.”

“Maybe not through here,” Bluestreak agreed with a brief tap his throat and then one to his chest. “Through here, entirely different story.”

Sideswipe couldn’t help but laugh a little, but it was short-lived. “Bluestreak…you seem…closer to Prowl than before. You’re spending more time together.”

“Yeah. He finally saw that I wanted more of a bond than we had,” Bluestreak explained. “It’s funny, I’m seeing things from him that I had completely forgotten from our sparklinghood, like how he calls me ‘Blue’, not ‘Bluestreak’, when he wants to have a spark-to-spark kind of talk—and when he thinks I’m recharging, he’ll rearrange my tarps and make them really snug and warm—and how overprotective he gets—not in an annoying way, but in a kinda sweet way, because I can feel that he just wants the best for me.”

Sideswipe digested this for a few kliks before releasing a deep sigh. “That’s great, Bluestreak…I just don’t know what to think of the fact that just as you start spending more time with _your_ brother, Sunny and I start drifting apart.”

Bluestreak faltered once more, stammering, “You think the two things are related? Wait—you’re drifting apart?”

“Maybe, on both counts. Sunny used to do all those things you were saying for me. But this past week has been…hard, I guess, for both of us. Our creators died around this time,” Sideswipe admitted. Halting suddenly, he scanned the dark surrounding area, wondering if it was safe for a conversation like this. Finally seeming to trust it, he said in a low voice, “I think he’s…disappointed in what I’ve become since then, if that makes any sense. A few orns ago, he nearly shot a human because the guy insulted my paintjob. I guess he thinks I’m a pushover and he doesn’t like it, but every time I do defend myself, it’s to Sunny himself and it makes him mad. I don’t understand it!”

Bluestreak hummed in concern. “Well, it may seem a little skewed, Sides, but I think he wants the best for you just like Prowl does for me; older twins tend to be proud of those kliks when they were sparked first, y’know, and maybe he gets mad when you stand up to him just because he wants you to do that to other people, not him.”

Sideswipe opened his mouth to answer and then stopped, again looking around the space.

“No one else is here,” Bluestreak reminded him. “And you can tell me anything you want to—”

“It’s not that,” Sideswipe interrupted. “It’s just that…I don’t really recognize this. How long have we been walking?”

Rebooting his vocalizer uneasily, Bluestreak glanced over his shoulder. “Should we call—?”

“No! We’re fine, Bluestreak.” Sideswipe tried to lighten his tone. “Might as well have fun exploring instead of moping about my half-clock other half.” With this idea in mind, he moved forward, gesturing for Bluestreak to follow. Loose rocks shifted underneath their feet, the noise echoing on the dense stone walls around them. It was the only noise around them, as Bluestreak had apparently decided he no longer wanted to talk. Sideswipe was curious about that, but he tried not to show it, keeping his optics forward.

With a splash, Sideswipe landed shin-deep in a body of water that he couldn’t see. He startled, slipped, and ended up submerged to his waist. Grimacing as mucky water and grating mud clung to his metal, he glanced back.

“I can’t see a thing, Blue. You wouldn’t happen to have a light or something, would you?” No answer. “Blue? Hey.” Turning, Sideswipe enlarged his optics, still finding only shadows. Muttering an anxious curse, he pulled his blaster, hoping he would be able to spot his companion in the brief kliks of illumination—

From there he wasn’t sure which overpowered his audials first: the roar of the methane fire or the rumble of the explosion.

—

Bluestreak drew in his vents with a wheeze that was cut off by the dust lodged in them. Briefly he wondered why he couldn’t online his optics before realizing that the utter blackness wasn’t a system malfunction but the inside of the cave. The right side of his face was pressed into the ground where it was moist from his energon and the rest of his body was creating an entirely new definition of awkward angles.

Gearing up, Bluestreak tried to shout. “Sides!” His voice was croakier than he expected. “Sideswipe!”

Silence. A moment’s thought brought on a panic-inducing claustrophobia. He was pinned down by rubble, every escape out of reach, no one to listen to his cries for help if he even managed any—

“This is _not_ Praxus,” he mouthed repetitively. “This isn’t Praxus, this isn’t Praxus, this isn’t Praxus…Think of something else. Too dark to see—I can’t stay trapped, I have to get out—not Praxus—think of something else—Oh, Primus, help me—Sideswipe! Fraggit, answer me, please-please-please-please! Have to get out, have to get out, can’t to get out…” Bluestreak choked, overly aware of how dizzy and immobilized he was.

 _“You’re having a panic attack,”_ his CPU—speaking with Prowl’s voice—rang through the hot and cold flashes. “ _Calm yourself and think rationally. You already have an option of escape, but only if you focus yourself enough to use it.”_

“T-Tell me again,” Bluestreak trilled, his fingers scrabbling at the rock underneath him in a vain attempt to do… _something_.

_“Call if you need help and I’ll be there for you.”_

—

It had been at least an hour and a half since Bluestreak and the Lambos had entered the cave, Prowl estimated, glancing up from his reading for the fourth or fifth time. Perhaps he should try calling them on their comm. units.

 _They’re likely too far underground_ , Prowl reminded himself. _Even so, you hold a deeper line of communication_. Prowl focused on a beam of warmth and a question, ready to send it to his twin and ask how he was doing, and instead was puzzled to find a barrier between them. It wasn’t the stubborn kind that came after arguments, however. It was as though some type of deep, raw emotion was backed up on Bluestreak’s side, too congested to share with Prowl.

Odd, and a little concerning. Prowl was ready with another question—“Are you alright?”—but hesitated to send it through. Was Bluestreak suppressing negative emotions from him because they were _about_ him? Even Prowl himself knew that sometimes he could be overbearing with protectiveness for his twin. Maybe Bluestreak simply wanted some time without having to reassure him. It could be a common occurrence for two halves to need time apart.

_But he’s been so wanting for my attention. Did I stifle him with too much?_

“Stop being insecure about this or Bluestreak might notice,” he told himself sternly. “Just take advantage of the time alone that _you_ have.” Venting decisively, he activated the next segment of information on his data pad, but before he had read two words the bond obstruction burst from the strain, driving through fragmented thoughts and staggering amounts of pain.

_~:Have to get out—have to get out—I can’t stay trapped, I can’t get out!…Praxus, not Praxus…Oh, Primus, help me!:~_

Mere kliks later, Prowl was sprinting up the hill, begging of Primus just the same.

—

How long did exploring a dank, dark cave take? Sunstreaker paced in front of the entrance, wondering if he should have gone simply to hurry Sides and Blue along a bit. A twinge of guilt caused him to wince at the idea. Maybe he should have gone simply because Sides had asked him to.

 _I’ve been too hard on him lately_ , Sunstreaker realized, not for the first time. But every time he thought he was ready to face it, he wasn’t. It was then that he would bark at his brother, liking the feeling of anger more than vulnerability, and that always made the situation worse.

Although, Sunstreaker somewhat doubted things with his brother could _get_ any worse.

Before he could finish that thought, two things happened: Prowl appeared over the crest of the hill and then he stumbled, narrowly catching himself as said hill shivered. Sunstreaker glanced between him and the cave entrance with surprise, calling, “What’s up, Prowl?”

Prowl apparently didn’t feel like wasting time by explaining whatever the matter was, as he simply dashed past him into the cave. Sunstreaker was more than a little miffed and confused until he recalled what Prowl had said to Bluestreak earlier about calling for help.

But he had felt nothing from his own brother. Either Sideswipe was too mad about earlier to contact him or…

Sunstreaker fairly bull-rushed the entrance to the cavern, barely registering discomfort when he slammed his helm against the stone. He caught up to Prowl in good time, gasping, “What’s he saying? Where are they?”

“I’m trying to calm him enough to get directions,” Prowl answered rigidly. A pause that felt like eons passed before Prowl added worriedly, “They got lost…separated. He says there was an explosion.” Prowl’s expression became pained and he murmured in a much fainter voice, “You’re on an entirely different _world_ , Bluestreak. What happened there will never happen again…”

Too panicked by the word ‘explosion’ to wait, Sunstreaker shoved past Prowl and plunged deeper into the chilling darkness, eventually halting when he stumbled and plunged into the even more chilling, stagnant water. He recoiled at first and then placed a hand on his arm where something had bumped him. Gingerly he reached out, searching the surface for the unknown entity.

“Scrap this,” he cursed at last, unlatching his chest armor. He would have looked to see if Prowl had caught up before doing something so revealing, but if he didn’t do it he wouldn’t be able to tell anyway.

His spark generated enough light to illuminate the water’s flickering surface and the surrounding area. The cave was in shambles, rocks piled high and, by the looks of them, unyielding. The rest of the small area was littered with fallen debris, odd bits and pieces poking out of the water around him, but there was only one rock pile he cared about: the one that covered most but not the entirety of familiar red armor, stained orange by the golden light.

If there were a contest for how quickly one could wade through a cavern pool, Sunstreaker surely would have won it. He clambered over and around the debris in his way, drenching every part of his person _aside_ from his open chest chamber ( _thank you, Primus_ ) before tumbling to a kneeling position next to Sideswipe. His helm was lulled back, optics dark, and he was entirely too quiet for Sunstreaker’s comfort.

“Sides?” he croaked, repeating it with voice rising in fear. With shaky hands he began to remove the rocks instead of bothering to wipe at the moisture from his optics. If he’d swallowed his pride for the sake of his brother, he probably could have prevented this!

Sunstreaker’s relief was minimal when Sideswipe’s vents contracted for air, for just as he’d uncovered them, he’d also uncovered the wounds. Sunstreaker had seen his brother bleed many times, but not like this. It was on the rocks he was moving, on the stone beneath them, sliding into the pool…Or was the light playing tricks on him? He knew Sides was bleeding somewhere.

“Sunny. You came.” Sideswipe sounded more thankful than Sunstreaker knew he deserved.

“Give me an assessment,” he ordered. “What’s the damage?”

“It…doesn’t feel too bad,” Sideswipe managed. “My helm hurts the most.”

“Well, you aren’t seeing these burns,” Sunstreaker muttered, unsure whether to focus on said burns or the helm pain. “You’ll be in a world of pain later.”

“Looking forward to it.”

“Yeah, well, let’s just focus on getting out. I kinda need your help to do that, Sides. I can’t use my spark to light the way back if I’m carrying you, so I need you to get up.”

Admitting his own defeat made him feel ashamed and useless. Sunstreaker had one job, being the older twin, the big brother, and he was exceptionally failing at it. Slag it all to the fraggin’ Pits of Kaon, he had already failed so many times today. Sliding a hand underneath Sideswipe’s neck to support it, Sunstreaker repeated, “You gotta get up so we can go home.” Yes, they would certainly find themselves at the wrong end of Ratchet’s wrath for the escapade, but it was better than Sideswipe bleeding to death in the dark.

Sideswipe, however, surprisingly shook his helm. “I…don’t think I can walk. Let my half of the spark light the way. You can close yours and carry me.”

Sunstreaker nodded his agreement and cleared away the rest of the rocks, pulling Sideswipe’s battered form carefully to his chest. As he waded back toward the other shore, trying to give Sideswipe only minimal contact with the water, Sunstreaker continually glanced toward his spark, somewhat awed by it. His other half. The other part of him.

It was at that exact moment that Sideswipe decided to ask a question. “Are you disappointed in me, Sunny?”

Sunstreaker stumbled (over an underwater stalagmite, he told himself), dipping Sideswipe’s feet into the water. “What makes you think that?” he mumbled uncomfortably.

“Don’t answer my question with a question. It’s stupid,” Sideswipe informed him.

“For someone who supposedly has a helm injury, you’re disgustingly scholarly at the moment,” Sunstreaker shot back. He stayed silent until they reached the opposite shore, where he put Sideswipe down while he stayed in the water, facing him. This couldn’t be a talk on the move.

“Yes,” he confessed reluctantly. “I _am_ disappointed.” To his horror, the light from Sideswipe’s spark literally flickered at the words. “Because I know that what you’ve become is my fault.” Before his brother could ask what he meant and interrupt his train of thought, Sunstreaker sped on, “I know I’m not the better half of this spark by a long shot, but I’m connected to that better half, which is you.” Huffing softly, he remarked, “Carrier always said that we needed to be our own persons, all the more so since we were twins, right? But I…I’m disappointed when I look at you because more and more when I do, I see _myself_. I thought maybe if I gave you some space, you would stop trying to be around me and be like me. That’s the last thing I want.”

Sideswipe’s right arm, which had up to this point been trailing in the water, clutched at his elbow. “Being left alone? That’s the last thing _I_ want,” he enunciated firmly. “That’s what happened to Bluestreak at Praxus and do you think I want to be like him?”

Sunstreaker couldn’t help but laugh at the sarcasm in Sideswipe’s voice. “And have me pull the short straw and be like Prowl? Never.”

Sideswipe badly stifled his own laughter, replacing it with a groan as his wounds reminded him of their presence. Sunstreaker scrambled out of the water and easily picked him up once more, holding him a bit more closely and picking up speed as they made their way through the tunnels. They were quite relieved to find Prowl supporting Bluestreak’s weary frame near the entrance of the cave.

“Bluestreak, Sideswipe, do you want Ratchet and Optimus to come and pick us up?” Prowl offered. “Now that we’re above ground, I can get a radio signal.”

“I just want you,” Bluestreak whispered, pressing closer to his brother just as Sideswipe sealed his chest chamber and did the same.

“Okay, Prowl, guess we’re lugging them back,” Sunstreaker feigned reluctance, adding casually, “Oh, and on the way back, Sideswipe, you’ll be telling me exactly how this explosion happened, because I have a feeling that I _never_ would have done what caused it.”

“I think I’d rather sleep,” Sideswipe informed him with a smile that was more sheepish than it ought to be.


End file.
